SKF, Timken, NSK, BCA, and Schaeffler are all long standing, reputable manufacturers of bearings for thousands of applications. Any one of them would be acceptable.

For the others, they're all mostly automotive parts suppliers/manufacturers. Some of them make parts, while others simply purchase and rebrand (Beck Arnley for certain). It's likely that those parts are using a bearing in the hub that's manufactured by one of the five companies above.

 

Check out Detroit Axle for wheel bearings. They're inexpensive which leads you to believe that they are poor quality. I've had four of them of my MC40 for 4 years now with absolutely no issues.

 

Yep i have run Febi ( UK and China) SKF, NSK, etc..

The aftermarkets are good and they lasted about the same as the OEM level (skf etc). Seems its more of the rust on hub and the design of the bearing/salt areas the ruin them faster. I have 144K miles on my R58 and it never sees snow and salt. On original bearings. Still good.

I have almost 280K miles on my R52 that i drove in winters since 2004 of dec and its gone through 4 complete bearing sets. The corrosion and salt kills these bearings.

My R56 with 140K miles was driven year round and it went through 2 sets all the way around.

The oems have a little better bearing but what i have noticed with 3 MINIs and over 12 bearings done over the time is the flange on the back of the bearing likes to rust and that's the start of the bearing, water gets in and ruins the ball bearings. They get the growl and then they need done in pairs.


When they rust the sensor head likes to wear also, its gets damaged on the head and then the sensor cannot pick up the signal from the bearing for the ABS. Hence ABS light. Watch installing new sensors as the heads like to break in the rusty knuckles. I cleaned mine out with Emory cloth and used a tiny bit of grease, watch the grease on the sensor head.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ed-sensor.html



Hope that helps

 

I wanted to drop in and say, this happened to me yesterday while attempting to change strut mount. I was able to complete the job by dropping the entire strut and knuckle assembly low enough to have access to the strut mounts. Wondering if I should drill out or attempt to extract while using a torch... But it's one of those feelings where I don't feel alone anymore.

 

I went with a used knuckle from junkyard the ones recommended by NAM people.

I am currently replacing it with the following: it's in process little by little. I am cleaning and painting some suspension parts

Wheel bearing - SKF
CV Joint drive shaft Driver side - GKN ( reman. )
Strut - Bilstein
ABS sensor - Hella
Output drive shaft oil seal - driver side - Corteco

 

I am keeping my kuckle with snapped bolt... I will deal with this when I am bored.

I will either drill and extract the bolt or drill through, will be modified with longer bolt and nut.